3Di Delays Profiler Updates to Navigate Data License "Minefield"

3Di initially released version 3.0 of its Profiler tool last year, but has now stalled some of the upgrades to add a notifications and alerts function that will alert users to changes in policy, pricing or access to data.

"It could be that the exchange or trading venues announce a new delivery mechanism for their data, a new platform or vendor relationship," says Janelle Veasey, director of operations and services at 3Di. "For example, Euronext could decide it's going to change some coding through Reuters, or they're going to announce a policy change from July 1 and that their costs are going up," she adds.

3Di already sends weekly alerts to its customers, but the alerts will now be tracked and displayed in a news feed in the Profiler tool. If an exchange issues an alert, then the vendor will provide a link to the exchange so users can view it for themselves.

"Annual alerts are not useful...a head of market data may be getting 600 emails a day. It's impossible to get through them all and [there's the potential] to be back charged, fined and risk reputational risk because you've missed an alert. These are the kind of things industry still needs to tackle. The value we're adding is we're consolidating all those notifications and alerts and putting them in one place," Veasey says, adding that functionality is currently being integrated into Profiler, with the rest of the version 3.0 upgrades resuming in May.

In other news, 3Di plans to release an Exchange Module at the end of the year, as a separate bolt on to the Profiler tool, which will provide clarity to users on what they can and cannot do with exchange data. The module combines the licensing obligations for vendors, exchanges and brokers with the client's own environment to ensure compliance and transparency.

Veasey says that there are a range of complexities when it comes to the application of data, "not just around the price, but also around what you can and can't do with the data." In addition, definitions across exchanges can also be difficult to decipher, she says.

"Today an exchange's website is like a minefield, yet an exchange will expect you to pick up on an alert once every three years, and from that, contact the exchange, to change licensing that you have on a particular application, on a particular license. [Firms] do not have the time to do that for 265 contracts," Veasey says.

The Exchange Module is currently in beta testing with a "handful of clients" on both the buy side and the sell side ahead of launch at the end of the year.